Friday, March 9, 2012

Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup Friday: Yuri Fudoh Takes One-Shot Lead on Mi-Jeong Jeon

From one of the least likely winners in the JLPGA's season opener to two of the most familiar names on tour on top of the leaderboard at the Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup:  what a difference a week makes! 

Yuri Fudoh at -4, Mi-Jeong Jeon at -3, Yumiko Yoshida at -2, and Nana Akahori at -1 were the only golfers to break par at Tosa Country Club today, due to the combination of cold, wind, and rain that plagued most of the golfers in the field.  Last week's winner Airi Saitoh ballooned to a 79 in the tough conditions, but she wasn't alone, as 16 golfers failed to break 80 and many stars were well over par, including Harukyo Nomura and Mayu Hattori at +2, Ritsuko Ryu, Kumiko Kaneda, and Tamie Durdin at +3, Shanshan Feng (who won last week on the LET), Ji-Hee Lee, and Yukari Baba at +4, Teresa Lu at +5, Rikako Morita at +6, Young Kim and Miki Saiki at +8, Nikki Campbell at +10, and Gloria Park at +11.  Still, with Sakura Yokomine and Soo-Yun Kang only 4 shots behind Fudoh and Sun-Ju Ahn, Bo-Mee Lee, Hyun-Ju Shin, Shinobu Moromizato, Ayako Uehara, and Saiki Fujita among those 5 off the pace, the leaderboard is packed with big names.

Here's how it looks:

1st/-4 Yuri Fudoh (68)
2nd/-3 Mi-Jeong Jeon (69)
3rd/-2 Yumiko Yoshida (70)
4th/-1 Nana Akahori (71)
T5/E Sakura Yokomine, Soo-Yun Kang (72)
T7/+1 Sun-Ju Ahn, Bo-Mee Lee, Hyun-Ju Shin, Shinobu Moromizato, Ayako Uehara, Saiki Fujita, Akane Iijima, Hiromi Mogi, Esther Lee, Li-Ying Ye, Onnarin Sattayabanphot (73)

T22/+2 Harukyo Nomura, Mayu Hattori, Rui Kitada, Na-Ri Kim, Kaori Ohe, Erika Kikuchi (74)
T33/+3 Ritsuko Ryu, Kumiko Kaneda, Tamie Durdin, Na-Ri Lee, Yuki Ichinose, Aiko Kaneda (75)
T45/+4 Shanshan Feng, Ji-Hee Lee, Yukari Baba, So-Hee Kim, Satsuki Oshiro, Megumi Kido, Mina Nakayama, Natsuka Hori, Sae Yamamura (76)
T57/+5 Teresa Lu, Asako Fujimoto, Erina Hara, Misuzu Narita, Haruka Kudo, Da-Ye Na (77)
T70/+6 Rikako Morita, Kaori Aoyama, Maiko Wakabayashi, Miki Sakai, Kotono Kozuma, Porani Chutichai (78)
T80/+7 Ah-Reum Hwang, Airi Saitoh (79)
T89/+8 Young Kim, Miki Saiki, Eun-Bi Jang, Tao-Li Yang, Megumi Takahashi [a] (80)
T97/+9 Ming-Yen Chen (81)
T100/+10 Nikki Campbell, Lala Anai, Hsuan-Yu Yao (82)
T104/+11 Gloria Park (83)
WD Bo-Bae Song ("bad physical condition after 9 holes"), Erina Yamato ("right wrist pain after 13 holes")

On the bright side, Fudoh had the most birdies on the day with 5, Jeon had the only bogey-free round in the field, and Yokomine eagled the 296-yard par-4 11th.  Among the horror stories were a triple on 18 by Shiho Toyonaga that erased her 3 birdies on the back and sent her to a 74, a double on the 18th by Nomura, a pair of triples by Sakai, 9 bogeys and a double by long-absent-from-international-competition Gloria Park, and a bogey-bogey-triple finish by amateur Megumi Takahashi.

Let's hope the weather is better for the weekend!

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